


The Forbidden Forest Project

by Slumber



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Blair Witch Project - Fusion, Gen, Inferi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-09-29
Updated: 2011-09-29
Packaged: 2021-03-06 16:15:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,474
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26391778
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Slumber/pseuds/Slumber
Summary: In October of 2008, three Hogwarts alumni disappeared in the Forbidden Forest while creating a tribute for a WWN special. One year later, their memories were found.
Collections: 30-minute Writer's Block Challenge





	The Forbidden Forest Project

**Author's Note:**

> Yes, this is what you think it is. But with zombies! Or Inferi, as we know them in this world. :|

In October of 2008, three Hogwarts alumni disappeared in the Forbidden Forest while creating a tribute for a WWN special. One year later, their memories were found.

**I**

"Alright, alright-- Michael, will you _behave_?" Lisa scolded, slapping her friend on the arm. "And stay _still_."

"The portraits here don't stay still, why should I?" Michael challenged.

Terry rolled his eyes. "Just stand there, both of you," he said. "Okay, make sure-- yes, there, the castle's right behind you, that's great. Stop that. Michael!"

"Behaving, behaving," Michael muttered, ignoring Lisa as she rolled her eyes.

Thank Merlin he knew how to cut certain scenes from memories. Terry sighed. "Ready?"

Both of his friends nodded. 

"Go!"

"Hello, my name is Lisa Turpin--"

"And I'm Michael Corner."

"We're here at Hogwarts, on the tenth anniversary of the battle."

"We wanted to see what's changed since, and what's stayed the same, and we hope to share with you the memories of what we found."

"And cut!" 

"Cut?"

"It's what the Muggles say, Michael."

"Why do you have to cut--"

"Just let it go, alright?" 

Michael wrinkled his nose. "Fine." He nodded toward the castle. "Been a while, hasn't it?"

"Yeah." Terry had some memories, both good and bad, about his time there. "Shall we?"

**II**

Minerva McGonagall was as severe as always, and even the years have barely aged her. Some days Terry wondered if she was just as stoutly determined to never change.

"Hogwarts hasn't changed much since the war," she said, voice soft as her eyes clouded with memories. She was seated across from him, Lisa to her left and Michael somewhere else recording his own memory of Flitwick's testimonies. "The students here, some of them, at least, can't even imagine that this was once where we defeated Lord Voldemort."

Terry shifted. It had been years, yes, but sometimes a name was indeed powerful enough. It sent a shiver down his spine, an unavoidable chill. 

"And the staff? Those who remember?"

Minerva smiled. "We have so few of them left," she said.

**III**

"I don't understand what we're doing here, Terry," Lisa said, not for the first time.

"Look, they said Harry Potter faced You-Know-Who--"

"Voldemort," Michael corrected. 

"Yeah, him." Terry avoided looking at what he knew would be a knowing look from Michael. "Maybe there's something left behind from that time."

"This place is _creepy_ ," Lisa complained. 

"It's the Forbidden Forest. Of course it's creepy," Terry told her. "But we're adults now. "We know what we're doing."

**IV**

"What's that?" Lisa asked, jolting awake. They hadn't found anything, and night had found them deep in the forest. Lost, to be honest, and it was still located within the Hogwarts grounds so Apparating had been out of the question. Terry had, with Michael's help and Lisa's grousing, set up camp, and charmed all the necessary wards to protect them from the dark creatures that were rumored to surround the forest.

"We're in the Forbidden Forest, Lisa," Michael mumbled from where he had been battling with his blanket. "S'probably a bunny."

"S'nothing, Lis," Terry murmured.

**V**

"Terry."

"Mm."

"Terry, there's _something_ out there!"

"Cut it out, Lisa, we're trying to--"

There was a howling-- not a werewolf's howl, no, but it was unearthly and sinister and cut to the bone. Terry jolted up, and even Michael looked around warily. They shared a look, and noticing the increasingly anxious way Lisa fidgeted, Terry jumped to a quick explanation. 

"It's just some wolf, probably," he said. "But we're safe here."

"We're warded," Michael added. 

Lisa slipped back to bed, but she did not look convinced.

To be honest, Terry wasn't sure he was either.

**VI**

" _Terry!_ " Lisa was screaming, clinging to his arm with her fingernails digging painfully into his skin.

"Fuck, what's going on?" Terry asked. They were huddled in the center of the tent, which was-- for some unknown reason-- shaking all around them. Michael looked at him with unmasked fear in his eyes, wand drawn but otherwise helpless.

"This'll pass, maybe this will pass," Terry said.

"I want to go _home_."

"It's okay, Lisa, it's oka--"

There was a loud ripping of fabric, their tent collapsing all around them, a shriek that Terry could not say was his, or Michael's, or Lisa's, and a looming shadow-- shadows?-- that closed in on them. 

" _Run!_ " he screamed.

**VII**

They must have run for miles.

They must have run for hours. 

Terry clung to Michael's hand, and Michael clung to Lisa's. They were out of breath, their legs were tired and exhausted. The Forest floor was rough and unforgiving, the air cold and punishing. Whatever had attacked their tent was still, faintly, somewhere behind them, and the howling had receded into a distant kind of moaning that still prickled at the hairs on the back of Terry's neck.

"What the bloody _hell_ was that?" Michael asked. He looked ridiculous, still in his pajamas and ragged robes. His cheeks were red from the physical exertion of running, and he was panting very heavily.

"Terry, what the _fuck_ ," Lisa hissed. She looked no better. Her eyes were bloodshot from tears, her hair matted and knotted. Her knuckles were white from clutching her wand so fiercely.

"I don't fucking know, alright?" Terry said, running his hand through his hair. Heaven knows what the fuck he looked like right now. At least he had his wand, but what he really needed to do right now was to _think_.

**VIII**

"Where _are_ we?" Michael asked, hours later. It must have been hours. Terry's stomach grumbled, his legs ached, and they've been wandering the Forest for as long as they've been running away. It was a small consolation that they haven't come across anything since, but something at the back of his head wondered if that by itself should be cause for concern.

It was almost too quiet.

"Ter, look!" 

Terry turned, found Lisa peering into a cave, carved into the side of a jutting of rock. "Maybe we can set up camp here?"

"I don't know about caves--" Michael started to say, but a look from Terry shut him up. Anything that calmed them all for a moment was good enough. 

Terry whispered a soft Lumos, and with the glow of his wand he led them inside. (It had to be him, didn't it, since he brought them here to begin with.)

**IX**

There was a lake. Terry did not know why he did not think it, at first, but the lake had been massive. Far too big to have been hidden inside the outcrop of rocks that had housed the cave. But they didn't think of it then, didn't consider what that may have meant.

It was camp, as far as they were concerned.

It was enough to dry up, to settle in. Terry Summoned the blankets, something warm to snuggle beneath.

And then Lisa said she wanted to take a bath, or at least, to wash herself. 

She'd told them not to peek.

Terry had heard her wading into the pool, had her the splash of water as she started washing away the dirt of the night.

When she started screaming it had already been too late.

Michael tried, of course-- poor Michael had always been smitten with her-- and nothing Terry said could have kept Michael from jumping right in, never mind that Lisa was already lost, never mind that the Inferi had already gotten her. All of her. And then all of Michael too.

Terry could only run.

**X**

"By the time you see this," Terry whispers, curled up, huddled up in a tight little ball and talking to no one in particular, "it would already be too late. It's probably already too late."

His eyes are bloodshot, his skin gaunt and his eyes wide and skittish with the manner of a hunted animal. Because that's what he'd become, was it not? The day had been somewhat easy, once he'd left the cave and the lake, and once he'd run away, but night was falling. 

The Inferi would come for him next.

Terry wiped the tears streaking his grubby cheeks, blinking back as he stared at his imaginary audience. "I'm sorry," he said, the fifth time he's apologized. "Lisa, I'm sorry. Michael, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have brought you into this, I shouldn't have insisted--"

There was a howling from the distance. A moaning. It was the sound of inevitability, and it froze his heart cold.

"They're coming," he whispered, and his fingers tighten around the small phial he held in one hand. 

"Please," he begged. "Please, if you find this, _run away._ Run away, as fast as you can, and tell the world-- the Inferi are coming."

He closed his eyes, pressed the tip of his wand to his temple, and started to draw out a single, silver strand.

**Author's Note:**

> Please consider donating to local organizations who support trans individuals in your area.


End file.
